De Bruyne impersonates Haaland with 4-goal burst, ‘Zen’ pose
With his four-goal burst and “Zen” celebration, Kevin De Bruyne did a pretty good impersonation of a future Manchester City teammate on Wednesday.
Erling Haaland is joining City next season as one of the most sought-after strikers in world soccer and even he would be hard-pressed to produce the kind of finishing demonstrated by De Bruyne in a 5-1 rout of Wolverhampton to maintain City’s Premier League title charge on Wednesday.
After the Belgium midfielder completed his hat trick — his first for City — by the 24th minute, he celebrated with the “Zen” pose made famous by Haaland in recent years at Borussia Dortmund.
De Bruyne denied it was a nod to Haaland — “I just did it because I’d scored three,” he said — but they already appear to be on the same wavelength.
That is for the future, though.
The short term is all about retaining the title, and City restored its three-point lead over Liverpool with the win at Molineux. Pep Guardiola’s team needs four points from its final two games — against West Ham and Aston Villa — to guarantee first place but its superior goal difference of 7 might mean three points is now enough.
City might be running out of defenders, however, after Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho — a midfielder who filled in at center back — came off with what Guardiola described as “problems.” Center backs Ruben Dias and John Stones as well as Kyle Walker are already out for the rest of the season because of injury.
It was also a big night at the bottom of the standings, with Leeds losing 3-0 to Chelsea to remain in third-to-last place and in the relegation zone. Everton drew 0-0 at Watford and moved two points clear of the drop zone.
Leicester won 3-0 at home against lastplace Norwich, which has already been relegated along with Watford, in the other game.